Optimally prepared
The more practical, the better: Our crews undergo extensive training over the course of their careers – not only to stay up to date, but also to ensure high standards of safety. A visit in Manila.
The sunlight coming through the bridge’s windows is almost blinding. The ship is sailing cautiously through the Bosporus. This strait between Europe and Asia, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, is one of the most important waterways in the world, as it gives the countries on the Black Sea access to the Mediterranean and, thus, to international maritime trade. The shores to both the left and the right are sprawling with residential buildings, magnificent mosques and office complexes. All of a sudden, it starts raining heavily, almost hailing. Even with the window wipers, visibility is limited. A cruise ship appears to starboard, and the officer must yield right of way.
In the 270-degree simulator of the United Marine Training Center (UMTC) in Manila, the situation seems so realistic that it almost feels like you are actually on a ship. “The aim of our training is to prepare our seafarers in the best possible way for their work on board. Our philosophy is for the classes to be as theoretical as necessary, as practical as possible. That is why we focus on actual equipment, real-world examples and simulation,” explains Donald Bautista, Managing Director of the UMTC.
In fact, the exercises are so true to life that officers and engineers can emulate working on the bridge in 24-hour simulations that include communications with the engine room and shift changes. What’s more, the cadets live right on the campus to help get them used to living away from home. “Mentally, one of the biggest challenges is not being able to see your family for longer stretches of time. And we Filipinos are simply very family-oriented people,” Bautista adds. “For us, it’s important to enable the cadets, in particular, to gradually get used to this as preparation for a career at sea. Besides that, it’s obviously practical if the path to the next stage of training is as short as possible.”
Like many cadets in the Philippines, Joshua May Biron first attended a maritime school before coming to the UMTC. His first voyage took him to the Spanish city of Malaga. “That was really exciting,” he says enthusiastically. “It was the first time I was away from home, and I saw so much, too. That motivated me to go far in seafaring.” The training honed the 21-year-old’s skills and gave him a lot of confidence before he went to sea for the first time. At present, he is continuing his training in the hope of being the third officer on board during his next voyage.
All Filipino crew members who sail on vessels under German flag receive their basic and advanced training at the UMTC. While cadets and during their careers, they regularly return for safety training and refresher courses. The training courses are open to all crew members, no matter which flag their ship is sailing under. They usually visit training centres in their home countries. The advanced training courses that Hapag-Lloyd has its seafarers take cover much more than what is mandatory. This is especially the case when it comes to electronics, as increasing automation is making it more and more important to have well-trained personnel in this field. The UMTC offers more than 200 customised courses, taught by 56 full-time instructors. Most of them have work experience in the shipping industry.
One of them is Captain Raymundo Elizario, who worked at sea for 13 years. Today, he teaches courses on how to properly and safely operate cranes on ships. Especially in the smaller ports of Asia and South America, it is often the case that trained crew members must themselves hoist containers from their ships with a crane. “I took a course like this during my own career. This additional qualification helped me a lot to climb further up the career ladder,” Elizario says. “Being a teacher is my passion. It’s a lot of fun to pass my knowledge on.”
He has already been teaching at the UMTC for eight years. "In addition to receiving training to keep our technical knowledge up to date, we are given support to be good teachers. That constantly presents me with new challenges.” The native of Negros Occidental, an island in the south of the Philippines, teaches courses for various levels, ranging from cadets to senior management to captains. The heavy lift crane simulator course has four students: one that acts as a captain who is in charge of the ballast operation, one that acts as chief officer in-charge of the cargo operation and two crane drivers – or exactly the constellation that will also be needed on board.
Making trainers into better teachers is the job of Ester Dinawanao. Before coming to the UMTC, she spent many years teaching mathematics at various institutions – though none of them were maritime schools. In other word, Dinawanao was a total newcomer to the profession when she started here. With time, however, she grew familiar with the subject matter. “All the experts are right here on-site,” she says with a smile. “Whenever I don’t understand something, I ask others until I do.”
And that’s how Dinawanao gradually revised the entire mathematics curriculum. “When teaching mathematics, we also strive to make it as true to life as possible.” For example, when I explain the lever function, it’s much too abstract to simply write a formula on the blackboard. Instead, in this case, I’ll use the example of hoisting a container with a crane.” This is because force, weight and pivot point must also be calculated in advance to ensure that the load can be transported safely. In doing so, Dinawanao is also conveying the basics for Elizario’s crane-simulation course. “Our students have achieved much better results since we revised the curriculum because they understand the subject matter in a completely different way and are able to immediately recognise its practical use.”
One of the seafaring schools with which UMTC closely collaborates is the Lyceum International Maritime Academy (LIMA). The training of aspiring seafarers here usually takes four years, one of which is spent on board a ship. Here, too, the motto is: The more practical, the better. For the bridge alone, there are more than 35 simulators that the students use in classrooms to practice various scenarios at sea. For example, they learn the best way to navigate a ship in a certain situation – or how they should even sail it at all along the specified route. At the same time, the LIMA prepares its students not only for today’s processes on a ship, but also for those of tomorrow – such as how to deal with liquefied natural gas (LNG). Indeed, LNG could play an important role in the industry given the guidelines of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which envision a 30 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030.
“When designing our curriculum, we keep in close coordination with our partners, such as the UMTC. In doing so, we make sure that our training is always up to date and that our graduates have precisely the skills they will need at sea,” says Captain Alexander Gonzales, who spent 16 years at sea on tanker, bunker and container ships – most recently as captain.
While touring the school, you might almost think you are inside an IT company, seeing that almost every classroom if full of desks equipped with several monitors for various simulations. Even the engine room is displayed on touch screens, which makes it possible to zoom into the various sections. This equipment allows the teachers to continuously present new scenarios, which their students then have to resolve.
“We place high demands on the quality of our training,” Gonzales says. “That’s important, seeing that ship can be a dangerous place to work. But if everyone is an expert at their job, it has a positive impact on safety on board.”
A clear goal in sight
They have never been on a ship, but they know one thing for sure: They want to become captains. Cadets Cylka Soriano, Jack Allen Carandang and Jubilee John Dela Cruz are currently studying at the Lyceum International Maritime Academy (LIMA) in Batangas, southwest of Manila. They all wanted to pursue a career that will offer them a lot of variety. “I just can’t imagine having an office job. Plus, my brother is with the US Navy, which inspired me,” says Dela Cruz. Carandang wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, who was a provisions master on various ships. Soriano is the only one without any previous ties to seafaring. “While searching for interesting courses of study, I came across the Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation (BSMT) here at the maritime academy. That sounded like the perfect challenge for me."
© Hapag-Lloyd AG